Artificial/Synthetic grass or turf products have been growing in popularity and demand in recent years, especially for use in indoor stadiums and in areas where grass fields are difficult to maintain due to weather conditions. Such synthetic turf products are increasingly typically formed as tufted products with synthetic turf yarns or filaments that simulate blades of grass tufted into a backing material, and with a fill material, such as ground up tires, sand, and/or other particulate matter, generally being applied between the tufts of the synthetic grass filaments to help support the tufts and cushion the turf. During formation, such tufted turf products typically are produced in multiple tufting passes through multiple different tufting machines, such as by first running a backing material through a loop pile tufting machine, in which a series of loop pile tufts are formed in the backing, after which the initially tufted turf product is wound onto a roll and transferred to a cut pile machine for forming cut pile tufts during a second tufting pass of the material. Such an operation is not only very time consuming and results in over-tufting of the fabric, but can be very difficult and cumbersome to perform, especially after the heavier, dense, loop pile tufts are formed in the backing material, which generally must be moved by a crane, lift, or other heavy equipment to transfer it to the cut pile machine. Additionally, since the backing material has already gone through one tufting pass, there can be problems with accurately controlling the feeding and stretch of the backing material as it is run in a second pass through the cut pile tufting machine so as to accurately form the cut pile tufts therein.
The resultant synthetic turf or grass fabric further generally must meet desired standards for cushioning, support, ball bounce, ball roll, and the amount of fill, especially where it is installed in sanctioned athletic fields, such as for professional, college, and high school sports facilities. For example, FIFA, the governing body for international soccer has very specific standards for the amount of cushioning and support to be provided by the synthetic turf material when used for its fields, as well as for ball bounce and the amount of fill that can be used in such synthetic turf fields. There is further a continuing need to try to improve the cushioning, support and playability of synthetic turf fields, as well as a need to reduce as much as possible the amount of fill or particulate matter needed to support the synthetic turf or grass filaments, which particulate matter often gets in players eyes, etc., as it is disturbed during play, in order to improve the players' comfort and help reduce injuries as much as possible.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a system and method for forming artificial/synthetic grass or sports turf products that address the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.